REVIEW: Bloodspell by Amalie Howard

The spell was simple...

Cruentus Protectum (Defend the Blood)

But what do you do if your blood is your enemy?

Victoria Warrick has always known she was different. An outcast at school, she is no stranger to adversity. But when she receives an old journal for her seventeenth birthday, nothing prepares her for the dark secrets it holds -- much less one that reveals she's a witch with unimaginable power.

What's more, when she meets the dazzling but enigmatic Christian Devereux, she has no idea how much her life is about to change. Enemies will hunt her. Friends will turn on her. The terrible curse that makes her blood run black will stop at nothing to control her. And Christian has a sinister secret of his own...

Without knowing whom to trust, can Victoria survive her blood's deadly desires? Or will she lose everything, including herself?

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THE RUN-DOWN
After a strange incident ending with her in the hospital, completely fine, Victoria is more aware of her different-ness. On her seventeenth birthday, with the gift of a music box, an amulet, and a strange journal, Victoria founds out that she is actually a witch. But not just any witch, one with immense power and dark, uncontrollable blood.

MY THOUGHTS

In the beginning, the only major problem that I had was the fact that this book was basically a generic YA paranormal plot.

Is the main character actually a *insert paranormal being here*?

Yes

Did they find this out on their birthday?

Yes

Is the main character an orphan/has a single parent?

Yes

Does the main character ever move to a new school/town?

Yes

Does she met an irresistible hot guy?

Yes

Is he a *insert paranormal being here*?

Yes

All of the above are plot pieces that I see all the frexing time in YA books, especially paranormal ones. In fact, the only plot piece that is not in this book but is so popular in YA is the love triangle, and even that is questionable.

I actually didn't hate that it was such a generic plot, I didn't like it, but for a while I might have given this book 2 stars or even 3 stars at most. But there had to be other aspects that irritated me.

Where can I start? One thing that bothered me was the fact that this book was all tell not show for the first half of the book. Examples: We are told that Victoria is being trained on how to be a witch, but we only see this happen once. We are told that Victoria and Christian are having a relationship with each other in secret, but we never actually see them having any secret dates.

We are actually shown more things closer to the end, but by then, I had completely lost interest.

The points of view were also hard to follow. The book has a third person point of view and, at the beginning, the thoughts of characters switched every so often in an organized manner. But as more characters were introduced, the thoughts of characters was completely random. In one paragraph we would get Victoria's thoughts, the next paragraph would have Christian's thoughts, then the evil guy, etc. And it was confusing!

Lastly, was Victoria and Christian's relationship.

This one really made me lose interest in the book and it also made me extremely annoyed.

Here's a summary of their relationship:

You're amazing, I really want to be with you!

But the rules! We cannot be together!

But I cannot deny the attraction!

But I am dangerous and may possibly kill you because I'm a vampire!

But we belong together!

But I am also dangerous and may possibly kill you with my super witch powers!

But I cannot live without you!

So, yeah, I couldn't stand their stupid angsty relationship. It also wasn't helpful that a majority of the plot was basically them not making up their stupid minds!

IN CONCLUSION

As it might be obvious, I was not a fan of this book. It might actually be my fault since I usually try my best to avoid these kinds of books. I could also blame myself for not giving up on this book and DNF it. But no, I failed at both.

I probably won't read anything else from this author. I read Waterfell and while I liked it more than this book, I still wasn't a big fan of it. I might read The Almost Girl, since it is sci-fi which is more of my thing, but I make no promises.

While I wouldn't recommend this book, I wouldn't completely discourage it.

If you're a fan of generic YA paranormal books, then you might like this. But if you're like me and would like more original and different books, then pass this book by.

I hereby give this book

1 Star

Meaning: I did not like this. Not at all.